Italy Slams Amazon, Apple with €200M Fine
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Amazon and Apple have been fined a total of 200 million euros ($225 million) by Italy's antitrust watchdog for alleged anticompetitive cooperation in the sale of Apple and Beats items.
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Apple was fined 134.5 million euros and e-commerce giant Amazon 68.7 million euros.
On Tuesday, Italy's competition watchdog fined Amazon and Apple a total of €200 million ($225 million) in the latest action taken against US tech giants in Europe for their business practices.
It fined Apple €134.5 million and e-commerce giant Amazon €68.7 million for breaking EU legislation by imposing limitations on Apple and Beats product sellers.
Tech giants in the US have faced a wave of antitrust challenges in Europe, a tactic that is being closely scrutinized by regulators in Washington, which has promised to tighten its grip on the tech industry.
Read more: US States File Antitrust Complaint Against Google
An agreement between the two US corporations in 2018 "restricted official and unofficial resellers of Apple and Beats items from utilizing Amazon, authorizing the sale of those products in that marketplace solely to Amazon and to chosen parties in a discriminatory way," according to the Italian watchdog.
It stated that the goal was to limit the number of shops and cross-border transactions.
The arrangement constituted negative news for consumers because at least 70% of electronics purchases in Italy were made on Amazon, according to the report.
The watchdog said its investigation had attracted the attention of "the national competition authorities in Germany and Spain, which have also launched similar procedures".
With Europe pushing forward with antitrust lawsuits and US policymakers exploring changes to make antitrust enforcement easier, a crackdown on Big Tech businesses might lead to the split of the largest platforms.
Critics in the EU and the US want Apple and Google to loosen their grip on their online app markets, to see more competition in the digital advertising industry dominated by Google and Facebook, and allow better third-party access to Amazon's e-commerce platform.
